1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the art of designing and fabricating an enclosure for a speaker driver or set of drivers and more particularly providing the ability to produce any preselected external shape of the enclosure independently of the selected driver(s) while including the fabricating of internal cavities with selected shapes and/or positioned ports and connecting channels thereby allowing said internal cavities of said enclosure to provide enhancement ability for the reproduction of sound of the selected driver(s). This application is based upon the Provisional Patent filed Jul. 31, 2002 as Ser. No. 60/400,459.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The art of designing and fabricating an enclosure for a speaker driver or set of drivers has a long history and many variations. As speaker enclosures have evolved from a simple box for one driver or for a set of drivers, the box has evolved to accommodate each driver or set of drivers. Each change in driver technology and the enhancement in performance has resulted in the inclusion of ports, open, closed or tuned, enclosures and placement of sound absorption material around or behind the speaker driver, separation of the box into compartments, and other accommodations and improvements such as supports to stiffen the box. However, none of teaching of the prior art improvements suggest substantially changing the outside shape of the box, which may also accommodate a modified inside shape as required for a driver selection. This invention solves the problem of allowing any selected outside shape to accommodate the esthetic design of the environment into which the speaker is placed as well as accommodate any inside shaping required to enhance the characteristics of the drivers selected to be incorporated into the speaker enclosure.
Of the hundreds of speaker enclosures offered, most are based upon a box incorporating the basic square, rectangle, triangle or trapezoid shape. One prior art publication describes an enclosure incorporating a curved top and a rounded bottom formed from a circular box and a rectangular box with one end rounded, both component shapes being formed of layers of material glued together. The base of the rectangular box unit is then glued to the top of the circular box unit to complete the fabrication of the enclosure. This article appeared in “SPEAKER BUILDER, THE LOUDESPEAKER JOURNAL”, TWO:2000 in an article titled “Danish Delight”. However, assembly of the device as taught by the article with glue is a problem because as the glue holding the layers and separate units together ages, the environment of vibration of the speakers within the separate shapes used as parts to fabricate the enclosure for the selected drivers will result in separation of the parts and the layers used to form the parts. Any separation will induce undesired vibration that will generate distortion of the sound reproduction capability of this device. This article does not even suggest any provision for supports within the individual units nor incorporating any strengthening ribs or baffles. The shapes are made from thin sheets of material that are glued together without any additional means to hold the layers together. Nor does the article provide for securely attaching the individual shapes together. As the glue becomes brittle, and as the individual units are heated and cooled in the environment the layers will expand and contract or as the units are moved and positioned within the listening environment the individual pieces will also tend to become separated. Any separation will create unwanted vibrations and distortion of the sound reproduction ability of the speaker assembly.
Another example of a speaker assembled from layers is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,900,594 ('594) with the technique of cutting concentric shapes from a single sheet, making the cuts at a 45 degree angle, thereafter placing the inner layer upside down on the next layer and so on and then adding another layer cut from a second board as a cap to form an enclosure. The speakers are mounted on the second board. '594 does not teach or suggest shapes beyond basic conical shapes nor does '594 suggest the addition of more that the basic chamber created by the enclosure. '594 teaches the use of glue to hold the layers together without reinforcement, baffles, or supports to prevent separation of the layers. The use of internal, concentric layers produces minimal overlap of the layers that precludes the use of reinforcement rods in the perimeter of the device to hold the layers in place.
The present invention solves these problems by teaching the integration of any shapes into a single unit that incorporates supports and baffles as well as surfaces to enhance the music reproduction all within a unified, reinforced unit that is not prone to separation of units with age thereby avoiding the production of unwanted vibration and rattles that change the sound reproduction ability of the units.
Nothing is taught by the prior art for the construction of outside shapes other than ordinary geometric shapes with sharp corners that may reflect and distort the sound.
The prior art does teach construction of layers set side by side such as a cutting board that may incorporate reinforcement to prevent splitting and warping due to moisture. However, the prior art teaching of speaker enclosures provides only limited teaching for reinforcement of the conventional boxlike construction of the enclosure to reduce vibration.
The present invention is using an old method of construction by layers for the new use in addition to the incorporation of selected outside and inside shapes as well internal supports, baffles, tuning ports, channels and equipment compartments all in a reinforced, rugged unitary unit.
Thus, there has long been a need for a method of fabrication of a speaker enclosure arrangement that allows the user to easily define an external shape for the proposed environment as well as incorporate preselected drivers.
It is desired that the method allow a full range of external and internal design to accommodate the user's unique needs.
It is further desired that the method produce identical reproductions should the user require more than one unit or even to mass-produce the unit after completion of the design stage.
It is further desired that the method allow ease of alteration to the external or internal surface to incorporate changes to enhance external appearance or to fine-tune any internal cavity or port placement for enhancement of performance without major retooling.
It is further desired that the device be produced by the method not be adversely affected by a build up of separation of individual layers due to changes in the environment such as temperature or humidity.
It is further desired that the device produced by the method not require maintenance or retightening of the reinforcement.
It is desired that a simple attachment of the speaker terminals to the output of the user's equipment and placement of the speaker units within the user's environment, adjustment of cross over network, if any, by external knobs, is provided, for such user preference characteristics as balance or tuning, be all that is required to install and use the enclosures.
It is further desired that the enclosure device produced by the method of this invention incorporate any required mechanical or electronic interface to easily adapt to and reduce losses when attached to the user's equipment.
It is further desired that the external surface of the enclosure device produced by the method of this invention be enhanced with a veneer of preselected material to present an attractive, finished, unit compatible with the other furnishings within the user's environment without detracting from the sound reproduction abilities of the device.